Breitbart News Sunday: War on Football Is a War on Boys

On Sunday, Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon interviewed Daniel J. Flynn, author of The War on Football, Saving America’s Game. Broadcasting on Sirius XM Patriot Radio channel 125, Flynn told Bannon that the game of football has become a “political football,” running against “cultural currents” forged by intellectuals who condescend that the game is dumb and dangerous.

Flynn told Bannon that there are many myths that the game has increased suicides for the players and that they die decades earlier than those who didn’t play. Moreover, cultural elites suggest that bigger, faster, and stronger players make the game deadlier than ever. According to Flynn, however, the reality is that players tend to live longer than their couch potato counterparts.

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The author insisted that the oft-told lies actually support the interests of lawyers hunting for huge financial settlements in concussion awards. A good percentage of those who are prosecuting the lawsuits were bench players or who spent very little time in the NFL but are trying to get a share of a $10 billion a year industry. The falsehoods make money, so, to the lawyers, they make sense.

Daniel believes that football is good for boys too. “Boyhood isn’t a disease to be medicated away,” he said. Flynn insisted that boyhood is when boys learn to become men, and football instills direction and discipline. The author told Bannon that exercise is better for boys than Ritalin and Adderall: “They need competition and camaraderie. They need male role models. They need fun. They find all this on the football field.”

Bannon included in the conversation another guest on the show, Breitbart contributor Brandon Darby, and he pointed out that left-wing progressives in this country are trying their best to suppress any type of warrior culture in America. The reason for this, Darby said, is it is easier to control a more docile America than one that is emboldened by warrior games such as football.

Flynn agreed for the most part with Darby but added that the war on football is a war on boys too. Medicating boys in the classroom makes them easier to control than letting them nurture their natural aggressive tendencies. Flynn contends that 70% of teachers are women and that they lack understanding of boys. Flynn postulates that teachers, by “drugging them up,” make boys easier to control.